Historical Archives of the Sciences Library

Correspondence donated in 1948 by the Baccarini family. It includes 15 parcels and correspondence envelopes, handwritten notes on botany (including on fungi and vine diseases) educational records and lecture notes, about 4,000 excerpts on biology partly bound in 115 volumes, as well as an undetermined number of printed volumes.

•  Conservation state: poor storage conditions for the archive, good for the miscellaneous material. Cataloged on card records. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval; loan not allowed.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: Guida agli archivi delle personalità della cultura in Toscana tra '800 e '900. L'area fiorentina, edited by E. Capannelli e E. Insabato, Firenze, Olschki, 1996, pp. 53-54.
• Biography: information on Pasquale Baccarini in the Treccani Encyclopaedia

It includes abundant material, part of which donated by the heirs: correspondence, manuscripts, notebooks, preparatory material for future publications, drawings, miscellaneous material mainly about botany (about 2,650 excerpts collected in 70 boxes), and 700 leaflets and brochures from the 19th century on zoology, collected in 20 folders stored in the Sciences Campus Library Branch. The archives have been the object of a reorganization by Beatrice Biagioli in 2005 and their inventory is available as a pdf file.

• Conservation state: Fair. Consultation and reproduction upon authorisation. Not for loan.
• S.I.U.S.A. Description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: Guida agli Archivi delle personalità della cultura in Toscana tra '800 e '900. L'area fiorentina, edited by E. Capannelli and E. Insabato, Firenze, Olschki, 1996, pp. 82-85
• Biography: informazioni on Odoardo Beccari in the Treccani Encyclopedia
• Description in Chartae: Beccari Odoardo
• See also Miscellanee della Biblioteca di Scienze

Archive acquired between 1904 and 1920, consisting of correspondence envelopes and parcels (in particular that from Franciscan Father Giuseppe Giraldi, whose travels in China were financed by Biondi) and manuscripts relating to the mosses collected by Father Giraldi.

• Conservation state: In poor storage conditions. Uncataloged. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval; not for loan .
• S.I.U.S.A. Description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: Guida agli archivi delle personalità della cultura in Toscana tra '800 e '900. L'area fiorentina, edited by E. Capannelli e E. Insabato, Firenze, Olschki, 1996, pp. 98-99.
• Biography: information on Antonio Biondi on the SIUSA portal.

An envelope (with annotation 'given to prof. Chiarugi in 1931') containing letters, manuscripts and notes on botany.

• Conservation state: Poor.  Uncatalogued. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval. Not for loan.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: Guida agli Archivi delle personalità della cultura in Toscana tra '800 e '900. L'area fiorentina, edited by E. Capannelli e E. Insabato, Firenze, Olschki, 1996, pp. 125-126
• Biography: information on Antonio Bottini on the SIUSA portal.

It is made up of parcels and envelopes containing proceedings of university competitions, drafts of Chiarugi's correspondence as a director of the Colonial Herbarium and the Centre for Studies on Plant Cytogenetics (ca. 1950-1954); notes on botanical topics.

• Conservation state: Poor. Uncatalogued. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval . Not for loan.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: Guida agli Archivi delle personalità della cultura in Toscana tra '800 e '900. L'area fiorentina, edited by E. Capannelli and E. Insabato, Firenze, Olschki, 1996, pp. 171-172
• Biography: information on Alberto Chiarugi in the Treccani Encyclopaedia

The archive consists of correspondence, botanical notes and manuscripts, some of which related to the 1st and 2nd edition of Analytical Flora of Italy. The original illustrations of the book - about 3,900 drawings - are kept at the Botanical Museum in Florence.

• Conservation state: Fair. Uncatalogued. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval. Not for loan.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: Il portale del Sistema Informativo Unificato per le Soprintendenze Archivistiche offre una scheda descrittiva of the archive.
• Bibliography: Guida agli Archivi delle personalità della cultura in Toscana tra '800 e '900. L'area fiorentina, edited by E. Capannelli and E. Insabato, Firenze, Olschki, 1996, pp. 262-263
• Biography: information on Adriano Fiori in the Treccani Encyclopaedia

The archive contains correspondence received between 1870 and 1910; manuscripts and notes, even with drawings and photographs, mostly on mosses, lichens, tulips; documents relating to an International Commission on botanical nomenclature. The archive which was reorganized in 2005 by the archivist Beatrice Biagioli, is inventoried: consult the inventory.

• Conservation state: Fair. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval . Not for loan.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: Guida agli Archivi delle personalità della cultura in Toscana tra '800 e '900. L'area fiorentina, edited by E. Capannelli and E. Insabato, Firenze, Olschki, 1996, pp. 329-330
• Biography: information on Emile Levier in the Treccani Encyclopaedia
• Description in Chartae: Levier Emilio

The archive includes envelopes, boxes, and received parcels; travel notebooks; botanical manuscripts (including notes on Monocotyledones sardoae); drawings and photographs of the genus Pandanus; 4,000 extracts contained in 95 boxes; 400 printed volumes mainly on botanical and phytogeographical (tropics) subjects. The Botanical Museum, holds a collection of photographic plates (about 530) as well as the herbaria. The archive has been reorganised by Beatrice Biagioli in 2013 and its inventory is available in pdf format.

• Conservation state: Fair. Catalogued on paper. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval. Not for loan.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: Guida agli Archivi delle personalità della cultura in Toscana tra '800 e '900. L'area fiorentina, edited by E. Capannelli and E. Insabato, Firenze, Olschki, 1996, pp. 367-369
• Biography: information on Ugolino Martelli on the SIUSA portal
• Description in Chartae: Ugolino Martelli

There are 72 manuscripts numbered 1-69, 69bis, 70-71, for a total of about 11,000 papers belonging to this illustrious botanist. A small contingent of these is originally penned by the author; the others were copied by scribes (five different ones found, but not identified). Around 1300 sheets have original drawings of Micheli. There are also about 2,500 color plates, attributed in part to Chellini and Bonechi.

• Conservation state: Fair. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval. Not for loan.
• Bibliography: Ragazzini, Stefania, Per una catalogazione degli scritti inediti di Pier Antonio Micheli, Firenze, Giunti, 1983, in: Annali dell'Istituto e Museo di storia della scienza di Firenze, 8 (1983), 2, pp. 159-172
  I manoscritti di Pier Antonio Micheli conservati nella biblioteca botanica dell'Università di Firenze. Catalogo, edited by Stefania Ragazzini, Firenze, Giunta regionale toscana; Milano, Bibliografica, [1993]
  Baldini Enrico, Ragazzini Stefania, Le varietà di ulivo dell'agro fiorentino. Manoscritto inedito di Pietro Antonio Micheli, Firenze, Accademia dei Georgofili, 1998
• Biography: information on Pier Antonio Micheli in the Treccani Encyclopaedia

The archive, a gift of the heirs, includes boxes, parcels and some notebooks (letters from Negri to the botanist Mattirolo), 69 travel notebooks, botanical notes, bibliographical notes and more than 4,900 abstracts, mainly on botany.

• Conservation state: The miscellaneous is in fair conditions; the archival material has been partly flooded. The miscellanous is catalogued on paper.  Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval. Not for loan.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: Guida agli Archivi delle personalità della cultura in Toscana tra '800 e '900. L'area fiorentina, edited by E. Capannelli and E. Insabato, Firenze, Olschki, 1996, pp. 421-422
• Biography: information on Giovanni Negri in the Treccani Encyclopaedia

The archive includes correspondence received (about 40 parcels and envelopes; among the senders, besides various contemporary botanists, even Cesare Battisti), notes (especially on silphium of Cyrenaica and on lichens) and black and white photographs of botanical subjects.

• Conservation state: The material has been partially flooded. Uncatalogued. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval . Not for loan.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: Guida agli Archivi delle personalità della cultura in Toscana tra '800 e '900. L'area fiorentina, edited by E. Capannelli and E. Insabato, Firenze, Olschki, 1996, pp. 444-445
• Biography: information on Renato Pampanini on Wikipedia

It is a small part (1 envelope and 1 album) of the archive since the majority was left by Parlatore as a gift to his hometown, Palermo. It includes a correspondence between Parlatore and the Ministry of Agriculture (1850-70) and messages of condolence addressed to the widow. Other archive material (1 folder, 1 bound volume and 8 notebooks) is deposited at the Botanical Museum.

• Conservation state: Fair. Uncatalogued. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval . Not for loan.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: Guida agli Archivi delle personalità della cultura in Toscana tra '800 e '900. L'area fiorentina, edited by E. Capannelli and E. Insabato, Firenze, Olschki, 1996, pp. 457-458
• Biography: information on Filippo Parlatore in the Treccani Encyclopaedia

The details are still scarse regarding the acquisition of the manuscripts of Giuseppe Raddi by the Botanical Institute of Florence and its subsequent transfer to Library of the Department of Botany, which currently houses the papers. However, the most likely hypothesis is that of a donation by the heirs allegedly occurred around the mid-1800s under the pressure of the Grand Duke, always paying particular respect to the figure of the illustrious botanist, and coinciding with the arrival in Florence as director of the botanical Museum, of Filippo Parlatore, who turned his interest to the manuscripts related to the herbarium specimens. Unit 5: bb. 5. Includes: correspondence, records and documents, manuscripts (notes on mushrooms, on Pteridophyta and on Brazilian flora, writings on zoology, travel logs from Brazil and Egypt).

• Conservation state: Fair. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval . Not for loan.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: R.E.G. Pichi Sermolli, M.P. Bizzarri, A revision of Raddi's pteridological collection from Brazil (1817-1918) in "Webbia" 60 (1) 2005, pp. 21-25
• Biography: information on Giuseppe Raddi in the Treccani Encyclopaedia

The Library holds two bound volumes containing the diaries of the Botanical Society of Florence, established in 1716 on impulse of Pier Antonio Micheli, from 1718 to 1774 (474 paper for the first vol.) besides documents, dissertations, letters and financial statements for the years 1724-1774 (811 papers for the second vol.).

• See the entry Botanical Society of Florence on Wikipedia
• Description in Chartae: Botanical Society of Florence

The archive includes the correspondence received, the first notebook of travel notes (Siberia), manuscripts and study notes: in particular notes of Summer in Siberia, Flora of the Tuscan Archipelago, Malta's Flora. A portion of the archive has been reorganised (the correspondence) by the archivist Biagioli Beatrice in 2006 and led to the preparation of an inventory of the correspondence that can be accessed.

• Conservation state: Fair. Uncatalogued. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval . Not for loan.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: Guida agli Archivi delle personalità della cultura in Toscana tra '800 e '900. L'area fiorentina, edited by E. Capannelli and E. Insabato, Firenze, Olschki, 1996, pp. 587-588
• Biography: information on Stephen Sommier in the Treccani Encyclopaedia
• Description in Chartae: Sommier Stefano

Legacy of Philip Barker Webb to the Museum of Physics and Natural History of Florence with an annuity that would have ensured an increase in the dried herbarium and library collections; it became part of the library in 1906. It consists of a very important botanical library (over 5,000 books and as many pamphlets and abstracts). The library has also a highly historical value as it is rich in data on regional floras, botanical diaries, travel reports, and it also includes 7 parcels (labeled 'autographes') of correspondence received by Webb, sorted by sender. The archive was reorganized and inventoried by the archivist Beatrice Biagioli in 2006. Consult the inventory.

• Conservation state: Fair. Catalogued on cards. Consultation and reproduction permitted upon approval . Not for loan.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: Filippo Parlatore, Elogio di Filippo Barker Webb, Firenze, Le Monnier, 1856
• Biography: information on Philip Barker Webb in the Treccani Encyclopaedia

The archive includes four envelopes, 1 parcel and 1 box of documents (years 1911-1950) which were donated to the Library by Migliorini's geologist colleagues upon his passing. The material includes workbooks, correspondence, reports and notes on missions to which he participated and directed, drafts of reports, material related to conferences, collections of journals and newspapers, cartographic sketches.

Carlo Ippolito Migliorini (Bibbiena 1891 - Florence 1953), a pupil of Carlo De Stefani, and professor of geology and geography at the Institute for Advanced and Vocational Studies of Florence (the early form of the University), became interested in geology as a boy and was a member of the Italian Geological Society. After the First World War was in Anatolia with Giotto Dainelli, a friend of his father. He worked for AGIP as a geologist since 1934, contributing to the creation of a research center of the company and participated in major campaigns. He was visiting lecturer at the Florentine Institute. The Museum of Natural History preserves various specimen collected by Migliorini during his expeditions in Greece and Somalia.

• Conservation state: Fair. The material is not organised and is partially kept in envelopes and files, mostly original. Currently consultation is allowed by appointment (Mon - Fri 8.30 am- 2 pm; Tue and Thu 8.30 am - 6 pm) .
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: A. Azzaroli, Carlo Ippolito Migliorini (1891-1953), in "Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History", 3, 1955, pp. 109-113.
  Francesco di Cesare, Francesco Guidi, Journey through the past Carlo Ippolito Migliorini, in "SPE Technical Bulletin", 1, 2005, pp. 53-61.
  S. Monechi, L. Rook (eds.), Il Museo di Storia Naturale dell'Università degli Studi di Firenze. 3: Le collezioni geologiche e paleontologiche, Firenze, FUP, 2010.

The library preserves a number of original papers by Ulisse Dini, donated by Giovanni Sansone in the 1960s and 70s. The papers were entrusted to Sansone by the grandson of Dini, the engineer Gian Franco Koristka, for the preparation of the volume that Sansone was writing upon the request of the Italian Mathematics Union. Also belonging to the mathematician and senator of the Kingdom the Sciences Library holds around 350 volumes, which is part of his private library, purchased by the same Sansone in 1927.

• Conservation state: Fair. For consultation please contact the Library.
• S.I.U.S.A. description : The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: C. Burgio, I manoscritti di Ulisse Dini, 2004, Università degli Studi di Firenze, corso di laurea in matematica
• Biography: information on Ulisse Dini in the Treccani Encyclopaedia

By Domenico Montesano, a student of Luigi Cremona, university professor at the University of Bologna first, then in Naples, the Library conserves the correspondence (50 correspondents), donated by his son Roberto.

• Conservation state: Good. For consultation please contact the Library.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Biography: information on Domenico Montesano on Wikipedia

Angiolo Procissi (Prato, 1908 - Florence, 1987) was a great scholar of the history of mathematics, a mathematics and physics teacher in secondary schools first, then, until 1979, of Mathematical Institutions for Natural Sciences teachers in the Faculty of Physical and Natural Sciences of the University of Florence. The library has, since 1988, both a substantial collection of books and several papers, partially analyzed in 2011 by the archivist Francesca Capetta. It is mostly preparatory material for publications, notes, photocopies, press clippings, transcripts and about 126 other miscellaneous envelopes. The material arrived to the library thanks to the donation made, after the death of Procissi, by his widow, Mrs. Anna Camagna. The library collection it is almost completely catalogued (2,202 volumes) and contains within it numerous volumes with bookplates of Giovanni Sansone or dedications to the latter.

• Conservation state: Fair, but yet to be organised in its entirety. For consultation please contact the Library.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Biography: information on Angiolo Procissi in SIUSA.

Giovanni Sansone (Porto Empedocle 1888 - Florence 1979) can be considered with good reason as the "father" of the Library as well as the Institute "Ulisse Dini". He was responsible for the meticulous care with which the historical part of the collection has taken form starting from the purchase of books formerly belonging to Dini, followed by a careful policy of acquisitions and exchanges, further enriched by donations: Finaly and Toya primarily. Among the holdings of Sansone's material there are a substantial miscellaneous collection (consisting of more than 10,000 brochures and abstracts sorted in alphabetical order by author and catalogued on paper), documents, subject to an initial sorting in 2011, thanks to the intervention of the archivist Francesca Capetta, who compiled a first of the material held.

• Conservation state: Good. For consultation please contact the Library.
• S.I.U.S.A. description : The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Biography: information on Giovanni Sansone in the Treccani Encyclopedia
• Description in Chartae: Giovanni Sansone

As it is in the case of Domenico Montesano, also for Gabriele Torelli (Napoli 1849 - 1931), the Library holds his correspondence: 132 documents (1863-1929), donated by his daughter Beatrice after his death.

• Conservation state: Good. For consultation please contact the Library.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Biography: information on Gabriele Torelli in the Treccani Encyclopedia

The Della Corte donation consists of two groups of correspondence and a series of notes, calculations and measurements by Michele Della Corte (1915-1999), professor of physics at the University of Florence. The first group (1918-1924) includes correnspondence with Rita Brunetti, at the time assistant professor of experimental physics.

The second, more recent group (1945-1969), contains correnspondence sent to Della Corte. In 2013 a small library of physics books belonging to Della Corte was added to the collection (printed volumes from the 19th and 20th centuries). the archive includes as well the digitization of numerous photographs dated 1930-1979.

• Conservation state: Good. For consultation please contact the Library.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies
  offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Biography: information on Michele Della Corte can be found in the volume Commemorazione di Michele Della Corte : 21 settembre 1999 publishes in 2011 by Firenze University Press and accessible on Torrossa via the University network.

This is what remains of an archive of larger dimensions, which, in the previous century, was largely dismembered and whose volumes have partly been channeled through the collections of the library, especially in the antique collection. It includes over 500 volumes, about 100 bound volumes and 12 other miscellaneous folders, about 150 boxes, folders and documents. The monographs belong to the 19th century, covering different disciplines, from the natural sciences to medicine and literature. The bound pamphlets, gathered by Adolfo Targioni Tozzetti, are divided into two major series, and include approximately 3,500 pamphlets and excepts dating from the 18th and 19th centuries covering the various branches of the natural sciences. Each volume comes with a manuscript index. The archives proper include correspondence, documents and other records relating to the Targioni Tozzetti family and its members.

The archives are complementary to that of the same name kept at the National Central Library of Florence. Adolfo Targioni Tozzetti (1823-1902), headed the chair of Zoology at the Institute of Higher Studies in Florence, and was the founder of the Italian Entomological Society (1869) and the Agricultural Entomology Station (1875).

• Conservation state:  In poor storage conditions, the material is located in a separate room from the library. Part of the archival material is kept at La Specola Zoological Museum. Only partly cataloged in book form. The consultation is currently not possible.
• S.I.U.S.A. description: The Unified Information System for the Supervision Agencies offers a descriptive record of the archive.
• Bibliography: B. Mascherini, Le miscellanee della Biblioteca di Biologia animale dell'Università degli studi di Firenze, in 'Atti della Società toscana di scienze naturali residente in Pisa. Memorie', series B, 98, 1991, pp. 135-152.
  Primi rionltati del censimento dei documenti italiani per la storia della scienza, edited by G. Paoloni and N. Coppini, in 'Rendiconti della Accademia nazionale delle scienze detta dei XL. Memorie di scienze fisiche e naturali', series V, XIV, part II, 1990, pp. 7-33.
• Biography: information on Adolfo Targioni Tozzetti in the Treccani Encyclopedia
• Description in Chartae Targioni Tozzetti